


Metamorphosis

by alto (themorninglark)



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Short One Shot, megane!Makoto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-09
Updated: 2014-12-09
Packaged: 2018-02-28 19:29:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2744354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themorninglark/pseuds/alto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What does the writing on the board say? Over there, under the diagram of the circle..."</p><p>Haru glances at the blackboard, then back towards Makoto. "The formula written in red chalk? You can't see it?"</p><p>Makoto shakes his head. "The letters are too small and blurry."</p><p>Haru lets out a small sigh.</p><p>"Haru?"</p><p>"You play too many video games," says Haru, cryptically.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Metamorphosis

Makoto squints at the front of the classroom, then glances around. Their teacher's stepped out for a moment, and everyone else seems to be bent over their work in silence.

He leans over and whispers. "Haru."

Haru, who's twirling a pencil in his hand, turns to face him with a questioning look in his eyes.

"What does the writing on the board say? Over there, under the diagram of the circle..."

Haru glances at the blackboard, then back towards Makoto. "The formula written in red chalk? You can't see it?"

Makoto shakes his head. "The letters are too small and blurry."

Haru lets out a small sigh.

"Haru?"

"You play too many video games," says Haru, cryptically.

He writes something on his notepad, tears the sheet off, and hands it to Makoto. "Here. That's what it says on the board."

Makoto takes the paper from Haru with a grateful smile. He copies down the formula on his own worksheet. Then a line of tiny writing at the bottom of the page, in Haru's neat script, catches his eye.

He lifts the sheet up to read it.

_makoto, if you had to bring this paper closer to your eyes to read this line, get your eyes checked this weekend._

Makoto's eyes widen, and flick over to Haru, somewhat abashed.

Haru merely meets his gaze impassively, raises his eyebrows in a slight, almost imperceptible motion, and goes back to his work.

 

* * *

 

 _How did I end up here as well?_ Haru wonders.

"What about red?" Makoto puts on a square pair of red frames.

"It's too bright for you," says Haru.

"I guess you're right... Green?"

Makoto switches the red frames for a grass-green, round pair, and studies his reflection in a mirror.

Haru shakes his head decisively. "No. Even worse."

"Haru, you don't like anything!" Makoto complains. "Green is - "

"Your favourite colour. I know." Haru eyes the green frames critically. "But with your eyes, it's just... too much green."

A chagrined look comes over Makoto's face, like he's about to protest, but Haru grabs another pair of frames off the shelf and hands them to him. "Try these."

Makoto eyes them doubtfully. "They look kind of plain."

"Choose your own glasses then. I'm going home," says Haru, turning away.

"Ah wait, don't, Haru, I'll try them - "

Haru's back is still turned to Makoto when he hears the small, surprised gasp. He permits himself a tiny smile of satisfaction.

"Hey, these look pretty good," Makoto's voice sounds from behind him.

 _Don't sound so shocked_ , Haru thinks. _Which of us is the artist here?_

"Oh, really?" he asks.

"Yeah, look, what do you think?"

Haru feels a hand on his shoulder then, a light pressure turning him round.

Later, what he remembers best from that moment, looking into his best friend's smiling face, is how much Makoto's whole manner seems to soften with these glasses. Less muscular jock, more gentle giant, like he really is. As if there's always been something of the shy, awkward nerd in him waiting to be unearthed.

Most of all, the subtle simplicity of the dark brown frames really sets off his eyes.

They've never looked so green.

"Looks fine," is all Haru says. "Can we go home now?"

Makoto laughs, his smile widening warmly.

 

* * *

 

Makoto hears something fall out of his bag as he takes it out of the locker. "Ah, oops - "

He looks down to see his glasses land on the floor with a soft clatter, right by Rin's feet.

"I didn't know you wore glasses," Rin remarks.

Makoto smiles. "I've been wearing these since second year of junior high, actually."

"Huh. That's a long time." Rin bends down to pick them up, looking somewhat nonplussed.

Makoto closes his locker door. "I only need them when I look at things from afar, though... so I guess you just haven't seen me wear them before?"

"Well, let's see then. Put them on," Rin demands as he hands them back to Makoto.

As Makoto takes his glasses from Rin, settling them on his nose, his fingers run lightly over the well-worn grooves, nicks and scratches on the frame. One of the hinges feels a little loose. He makes a mental note to take it back to the shop and have it tightened.

Rin stares at him for a moment. "They make you look so serious."

"Thanks? I guess?" Makoto says, with a small bewildered grin.

Rin returns the grin with a wry one of his own. "It's just a different look for you. I was surprised, that's all. Because _I_ still look like a freaking badass even in glasses, you know?"

Makoto laughs. "Haru chose these frames, actually," he says. "Back then... at my first trip to the optician’s.”

Rin raises an eyebrow. "Haru? Well, that explains it."

"Explains what?" asks Makoto, puzzled.

Rin slings his bag over his shoulder, and shoots Makoto a knowing look as he walks out of the locker room. "Why you haven't changed them in nearly four years."

 

* * *

 

"Do you think I need new glasses, Haru?"

Haru keeps his eyes on the TV, expertly jumping his character up onto a tiny moving platform, to a loud cheer from Ran and Ren. "Why?"

"Rin pointed out that these ones are pretty old. I haven't changed them since the day we picked them out together."

"So?" Haru asks. "They still work, right?"

"Yeah, but they're getting kind of scratched up and the paint is wearing off..."

Haru shoots Makoto a quick glance out of the corner of his eye. He's wearing those glasses now, like he always does when they play games, and his face is set in a look of intense concentration as he dodges a fireball.

"Up to you. You don't have to ask me," says Haru.

"Haru-chan, watch out!"

Ran's sudden exclamation snaps Haru's attention back to the game, and he smashes a button just in time to avoid falling off his moving platform into a pit of lava.

He jumps off, and runs to follow Makoto's warrior down the dungeon corridor.

"What are you doing this weekend?" Makoto asks.

Haru's answer comes automatically. "Swimming."

"I could really use your help again if you have some time afterwards, Haru, I couldn't have done it without you the first time..."

 _How am I supposed to say no when you put it like that?_ thinks Haru, somewhat irritably.

"Mmm," he mumbles. He doesn't need to say anything more, he knows, and neither does he need to turn to know that Makoto is smiling at him.

The TV flashes red. He realises too late that he's been distracted again, and a skeleton has fallen out of the ceiling and hit him on the head.

 

* * *

 

"Have you ever considered contact lenses, Tachibana-kun?"

"Huh?" Makoto stares blankly at the optician, who pulls out a card from under her desk and pushes it in his direction. There are several pictures on it of different types of lenses.

"Your shortsightedness has increased slightly, so it's good you came in for a check. You could try disposable soft lenses, if you like. Your eyes don't have any other complications or conditions."

"Sticking things in my eyes sounds painful," Makoto blurts out, without thinking.

The optician smiles in understanding. "It's not as bad as it sounds. You'll get used to it."

"I don't know..."

Haru comes up behind him then, looking questioningly at Makoto. _What's the holdup?_

"Ah, Haru, the optician's suggesting I could try contact lenses."

"No," says Haru immediately.

"But maybe it'd be better? You know how clumsy I am, and I always drop my glasses - "

"No," Haru says again. "You look better with glasses."

"A-ah? What?" Makoto squeaks.

Haru doesn't elaborate. He reaches out, handing Makoto a new pair of frames. "Here."

Makoto tries them on and looks at himself in the mirror. He can't help the small laugh that escapes his lips.

"Haru, these are almost exactly the same as my old pair."

"The brown is a bit darker," says Haru firmly.

"If you'd like a different look, Tachibana-kun, you could try some of these..."

The optician produces a tray of frames from the cabinet behind her, and lays them out in front of Makoto.

Makoto puts on a black pair and takes them off right away. _Too heavy._

He tries a thin-rimmed white pair. They seem to melt into his face almost invisibly. _Too plain._

Something with colour? Makoto picks up a yellow pair and studies it, but Haru cuts him off before he even puts it on. "Makoto. That's way too bright."

Makoto's hand hovers over the tray of frames briefly, before picking up the next ones. An ocean-blue pair.

He looks into the mirror, and his reflection startles him a little. The blue is the colour of Haru's eyes. It matches his own, like grass and sky, like a spring day in April.

Makoto stares at himself for a moment, lost in the mesmerising blue-green.

"That's a nice colour on you, Tachibana-kun," the optician chimes in.

He blinks, coming out of a reverie.

 _It is a nice colour._  But...

Haru bends down so his face is level with Makoto's. He looks at him, and furrows his brow, deep in thought.

"It's distracting," says Haru, finally.

The optician looks politely confused, but Makoto knows right away what Haru means.

It _is_ a beautiful blue. But Makoto can't wear it. It's just too... well, too _Haru_. It'd be like getting a dolphin tattoo, or buying jammers in black and purple. Distracting. He'd never be able to concentrate on anything else, with these frames on his face. The thought makes Makoto feel strangely flustered.

 _A beautiful blue_ , he thinks again.

He reaches for the pair of square brown frames that Haru had picked out at the start, and puts them on. The reflection gazing back at him is comfortingly familiar. He looks down at his old pair of glasses, sitting on the counter by the optician's hand.

Years of memories flash through his mind, memories of junior high, of video gaming, of late-night study sessions with his best friend, of hours in the cinema, of the time he'd fallen asleep in the library still wearing them, and Haru had taken them off and tucked them into his jacket pocket for him.

"I like these the best, after all," says Makoto, taking off the new-old pair of frames and handing them to the optician.

Haru doesn't say anything, but Makoto catches a fleeting glimpse of a small smile on his face, out of the corner of his eye.

 

* * *

 

Makoto wears his glasses infrequently enough that every time Haru sees him in them, he's a little bit startled all over again.

 _Is that Makoto?_ he always wonders, instinctively, before reason kicks in and tells him not to be daft; yes, of course it's Makoto.

They're sitting in literature class. It's a fine day outside for swimming, and Haru's focus keeps drifting.

His pencil moves restlessly across his notepad. He draws without thinking, aimless little doodles in the margins of his paper: the flowering tree outside his window, the torii gate he walks through to go home every day, the path by the sea where he runs with Makoto.

He casts a quick glance to his right. Makoto's listening to Amakata-sensei, pushing his glasses absently up his nose as she writes something on the board about metamorphosis.

A thought flits, unbidden, through Haru's mind as he watches Makoto take notes. _This is like a metamorphosis in reverse._

Usually, kids with glasses shed them as they grow up, to emerge like beautiful butterflies from cocoons. But Makoto just _has_ to be difficult, and turn the cliche on its head, doesn't he?

Haru looks back down at his paper to find, much to his annoyance, that he's drawn a picture of Makoto in profile, glasses and all.

He picks up his eraser to get rid of it before Makoto glances over and sees it, but at the last second he can't bear to, and he tears off the sheet and folds it into a tiny square instead, which he keeps in his pocket.

 

* * *

 

 _From: makoto.tachibana@ezweb.ne.jp  
_ _To: swimfree@docomo.ne.jp_

Haru, my glasses broke ;___;

 

 _From: swimfree@docomo.ne.jp  
_ _To: makoto.tachibana@ezweb.ne.jp_

what on earth did you do with them, makoto

 

_From: makoto.tachibana@ezweb.ne.jp_  
_To: swimfree@docomo.ne.jp_

They fell off my bedside table and I stepped on them in the morning when I woke up. The frame cracked. Maybe I really should get contacts?

 

_From: swimfree@docomo.ne.jp_  
_To: makoto.tachibana@ezweb.ne.jp_

…you’d better go get new glasses then.  
indestructible ones, you clumsy idiot  
made of titanium steel

 

_From: makoto.tachibana@ezweb.ne.jp_  
_To: swimfree@docomo.ne.jp_

You can get frames made of titanium steel???

 

_From: swimfree@docomo.ne.jp_  
_To: makoto.tachibana@ezweb.ne.jp_

makoto, have you ever paid attention to anything the optician tells you about types of glasses... 

 

_From: makoto.tachibana@ezweb.ne.jp  
To: swimfree@docomo.ne.jp _

^^;;;  
But, Haru... you won’t be here this weekend, right? Your university has a regional swim meet?

 

 _From: swimfree@docomo.ne.jp_  
_To: makoto.tachibana@ezweb.ne.jp_ **  
**

yeah, just go without me

 

 _From: makoto.tachibana@ezweb.ne.jp  
_ _To: swimfree@docomo.ne.jp_

That would feel weird, Haru, you always come with me…

 

 _From: swimfree@docomo.ne.jp  
_ _To: makoto.tachibana@ezweb.ne.jp_

well… you can surprise me  
just don’t get contacts.

 

 _From: makoto.tachibana@ezweb.ne.jp  
_ _To: swimfree@docomo.ne.jp_

Okay, Haru, I’ll do my best! ^^

 

* * *

 

“Haru!” Makoto calls, as he emerges from his lecture theatre.

Haru’s leaning against a wall, wearing his white and blue sports jacket and listening to music. He turns at the sound of Makoto’s voice.

Makoto runs up to him. “Thanks for waiti - um, why are you staring at me like that?”

Haru’s brows are furrowed at Makoto as he takes one earbud out. He steps towards Makoto, brings his face unbearably close to his and stares right into his eyes.

They’re almost nose-to-nose. Makoto feels a warm flush creeping up his neck. 

“Haru?” he whispers.

Haru doesn’t move or say anything. All Makoto sees, for a breathless moment, is a deep expanse of shimmering blue that seems to draw him in like a whirlpool.

When Haru finally breaks the silence, it’s like forever has passed them by, though Makoto’s dimly aware it’s been no longer than a few heartbeats.

“Are you wearing contacts?”

Makoto stares blankly. _“Huh?”_

Haru steps back, and tilts his head to one side, studying Makoto’s face with narrowed eyes. “You’re not wearing glasses. Are you wearing contacts? I can’t tell.”

Makoto’s mouth falls open. He bursts out laughing.

Haru frowns. “What’s so funny?”

“I’m not... I'm not wearing contacts,” Makoto manages to say, chuckling. “I just haven’t got new glasses yet.”

“Why? You should. You’ll strain your eyes in that big lecture theatre, squinting at the board.”

“Because… well.”

Makoto pauses. He looks at Haru, standing there in the corridor, gazing up at him. Haru, always there, always constant, after so many years.

He smiles. He knows the words that are about to come out of his mouth sound totally silly, but -

“I just didn’t want to go without you after all, Haru," he says.

“Idiot," says Haru.

But he’s smiling too, and a spark seems to dance in his eyes, like sunlight on water.

Makoto's smile widens into a small grin. “You know I’d just pick the ugliest pair if you weren’t there…”

“Yeah. You would.”

“Shall we go after lunch, then?”

Haru nods.

They make their way out of the university, side by side, towards the ramen shop.

**Author's Note:**

> This... totally came out of nowhere.
> 
> Well, actually, it came out of the tiniest spark of an idea that popped into my head and wouldn't go away, namely a headcanon that Haru always helps Makoto pick out his glasses. And then it just sort of ballooned. Into this, uh, ode to the glory of megane!Makoto.
> 
> I haven't written a short, sweet one-shot for a while, so I had fun with it :)
> 
> Thank you for reading! As always, comments and kudos really make my day, and you can always find me on [Tumblr](http://themorninglark.tumblr.com).


End file.
